Kelly's-

Elizabeth had been waiting around for hours, doing her job when customers came in and sitting around waiting while they weren't. Even though she knew that Morgan was all right it didn't mean that everything was okay in the Corinthos household. Even when a person knows that everything is going to be all right it doesn't change the fact that they still worry. When her rapist was taken away and she knew he would never harm her again she still felt the fear. Even to the very day, she still felt the fear.

Ric came into the restaurant for the first time since he and Mike had their altercation. It took him that long to just feel comfortable with opening the door. The fact that he didn't see Mike scowling at him was certainly not something that worked against him. But that didn't mean that Mike wasn't there in the back.

Hearing the door open, Elizabeth turned to see who it was, smiling widely when she saw her fiancé. "You've finally decided to step back in here?"

"I couldn't keep myself away from you," Ric put his briefcase on the first clear table. "No matter what happens around us, that's always going to be the truth. You're irresistible to me."

"The feeling is mutual."

"I was thinking we could get away from Port Charles for New Years Eve…"

"Ric," Elizabeth liked the idea, but it was a little too late, "where are we going to go? New Years Eve is in two days."

"We could just go right outside the city limits and park, have a picnic under the stars…"

"It's a wonderful idea, but it's still snowing outside. Stars don't come out when the snow is out, at least not all the time. And it would still be cold."

Ric laughed, "You just love to kill all the romantic ideas that I have, don't you?"

"Not all of them," she replied. "I still let you propose to me, didn't I?"

"Have you given any thought to that?" Ric asked. "I know that you said you wanted to be the one who planned everything… and I've been really good with the waiting thing, but if you have any sort of ideas as to what you want, please tell me."

"I just want a little ceremony." Elizabeth didn't want a lot of people around her. While she was friends with many, there were only a few who she considered close enough to want at her wedding. Lucky, Emily, Nikolas, Audrey, the people that she cared about more than anything else.

"Are you sure? I thought people like you enjoyed the Vera Wang dresses and doves…"

"Are you saying I'm materialistic…"

"Well, you did grow up during the Reagan years…"

Elizabeth gave the man a playful slap on the arm, "That's enough out of you, Ric! I told you what I wanted, and I'm not going to change my mind."

"A small wedding ceremony sounds perfect, Elizabeth." It was what Ric wanted as well. The less people he had around him also meant the less people who could doubt his sincerity. It was true that he didn't care what other people thought about him and his relationship with Elizabeth, but he didn't want them casting doubt on a relationship while he and Elizabeth were getting married. Elizabeth didn't deserve that. She deserved only the best.

Maxie walked in to Kelly's and saw the older couple. She had her doubts about Ric and Elizabeth, just like everyone else. But she could see that they cared about each other, and while that often wasn't all that was needed to make a relationship work it was more than enough to try and give it a shot.

"Maxie…" Elizabeth gave a brief wave to the girl, "if you're looking for Damian I haven't seen him all day…"

"I was looking for him," Maxie sighed, denied the chance to be with the man that she loved.

"Morgan's doing all right, if you didn't know," Elizabeth knew that the girl would want to know if she hadn't already been informed. "Your sister was over here earlier and she called the hospital, said that he had been checked out and was on his way home. We just assumed that Damian was there helping Morgan get settled."

Ric had not heard anything about Morgan. His family didn't keep him in the loop, something that hurt him on levels that even he didn't completely understand. "What happened to Morgan?"

Elizabeth glanced over at Ric. It didn't surprise her that he didn't know anything, but she was disappointed that nobody had even bothered to notify him. Morgan was his nephew. She wondered if they would even tell Ric something had happened at all. Maybe it would always fall to her, which seemed unfair to both Ric and herself. "He got sick, but he's better now. Thanks to his big brother."

"Sometimes I wonder why he's not already a doctor." Ric knew that there were people who had a calling in life, he figured that Damian's was to be a doctor.

Maxie heard her phone ring and sat down, digging into her purse and picking it up, "Hello?"

"Maxie… its Sonny."

Maxie didn't mean for her body to freeze, but it happened. Getting a call from Sonny could mean a lot of things, and none of them in her mind were very good. "Hi. Is everything all right?"

"Is my son with you?"

"No." Maxie's blood went cold. "I thought he was with you… Morgan got home all right, didn't he?"

"Yes, Morgan's fine, thank you for asking. But Damian wasn't here when we got home. He told Jason that he was going to do something on his own, but that was all that he said. I was wondering if he had told you anything…"

"No, he didn't tell me anything, Sonny." She wondered why he didn't tell her anything about it. If he wanted to do something he could have told her. She would have gone with him to be there for him.

"Do you have any ideas as to what he could be doing?"

"I'm sorry… I don't. He's never told me anything about what he would be doing today. I thought he was just going to rest. Have you tried calling him?"

"He's not picking up his phone… again…"

Maxie wondered why Damian would risk doing something like that. The last time he almost didn't pick up his phone Morgan got sick. But there had to be a reason. Maybe it wasn't a very good reason, but there had to be one. "I'm sorry, Sonny… if I had anything that I could help you with, I would."

"If you see him, or get in touch with him… please have him call me. I'm worried."

"So am I," Maxie mumbled. "I'll make sure that he gets in touch with you if I see him first. Sonny, if you do… please have him talk to me, just to let me know that he's all right."

"I'll do that. Thank you, Maxie." The phone went dead as Sonny hung up his end of the line.

"Something wrong?" Ric asked, having heard part of the conversation, his ears especially taking note when Maxie said the word 'Sonny.' It wasn't voluntary, just something that he did as a habit when it came to his big brother.

"Sonny doesn't know where Damian is… which means that he's not at the house with Morgan like we thought."

"Well where he could he be?" Elizabeth asked, knowing full well that nobody in the room would have the answer to that question. "It's not like him to just disappear without telling anyone."

"Which is why I'm worried." Maxie stood up from the chair and headed toward the door, "I'm going to start looking for him. If you guys see him…"

"We'll tell him to call you and his father," Elizabeth's face showed the worry that was so obvious. She cared about that young man, had since shortly after he came to Port Charles. He'd gone through so much. She hoped he was all right. Looking over at Ric, she could see that he was thinking the same thing.

Maxie kept the cell phone in her hand as she dialed for information. She knew that if Damian wasn't picking up for his father then the odds were that he wasn't going to pick up for her. Neither of them knew anything, but they weren't the people who knew Damian the best. "Operator? Could you give me the number to Elias and Victoria Zuniga in Los Angeles please? Yeah, connecting would be great." She'd only met them once, but they had made quite an impression on her, and she was almost certain that the same could be said the other way around. Forgetting a girl who was being held hostage on your lawn was a little difficult.

She turned around the corner, standing just under the archway past Kelly's while the phone rang. It dawned on her that the time was different, but she knew that since it was already in the mid-afternoon in Port Charles it wouldn't be too early to call over there. "Please be home…" maybe she shouldn't have been calling them. It would do nobody any good to worry more people about Damian, but if anyone had the answers aside from the man himself the people who raised him would be the most logical choices.

A female voice answered the phone. Maxie could tell that there was a small twitch of sadness in her voice, "Hello?"

"Mrs. Zuniga?"

"Yes, this is she…"

"Hi. This is Maxie Jones… do you remember me?"

"Maxie?" She made the name a question as she struggled to put a face to the name. "Damian's girlfriend?"

"Yes…"

"Is he all right?" Victoria couldn't take another day where she had to deal with worrying about her grandson.

"Actually… I was hoping that you could tell me that yourself," Maxie was worried once more. "We don't know where he is right now, Mrs. Zuniga. He hasn't told anyone about what he was doing to do today… and we just wanted to know if maybe there was something that you could tell us."

"Today…" she struggled with the information, as if saying it would bring more pain. But Victoria knew that it didn't matter, either way, the end result was the same. "His mother passed away on this day, Maxie."

She remembered the story that he told her. His words passed through her mind 'a few days later, she was gone.' It was a few days after Christmas. "Mrs. Zuniga… I'm so sorry, I didn't know. He never told any of us when she died."

"Damian's always done what he could to make sure that the people who he cared about didn't have to feel like they needed to take part of his burden. He can be a bit stubborn at times… frequently, actually. But I don't know how he's doing right now, Maxie. He's all alone in another part of the country, none of his family is there to share in the pain."

"You're wrong… and I don't mean that in a mean way, but he has people here who care about him."

"I'm glad that you are in his life, Maxie. Glad that he has someone who can care about him in a way that he deserves. He was always so hesitant to fall in love when he was growing up… but I can see now that he was just waiting for someone who he felt he could give himself to."

Maxie blushed, "Thank you for the compliment and the information. I'm sorry about today… I hope you can make it through."

"It's never very easy… but my daughter would want us to be happy. Please, make sure he remembers that. She would hate it if he was miserable."

"I will. Goodbye." Maxie hung up the phone. She knew where he was… but she also knew that it wasn't her right to help him cope. "Sonny? It's me… I think I know where he is…"